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[~Neri]

Lets practice controlling multiple active minions at once.

[GiglameshDespair]

Thank her for the skeleton.

Animate said skeleton.

We're going to run out of food soon. Search for edibe plants we could gather/ start farming. If we have seeds use the skeleton to plough a field and spread seeds. Basically necrofarmer.

Meanwhile hunter lady goes hunting for beasts.

[IcyTea31]

PTW for now, definitely will suggest later on.

[~Neri]

Thank her for the skeleton.

Animate said skeleton.

We're going to run out of food soon. Search for edibe plants we could gather/ start farming. If we have seeds use the skeleton to plough a field and spread seeds. Basically necrofarmer.

Meanwhile hunter lady goes hunting for beasts.

Lets do this also.

Also on top of that, we should try to get Tammy to like Necromantic Constructs.

(Also I do recommend colors for dialog, makes it easier to know who is talking, would have helped at one point or another.)

[Nirur Torir]

(Also I do recommend colors for dialog, makes it easier to know who is talking, would have helped at one point or another.)

(I haven't been doing that because it feels too much like a crutch that's only applicable to forum games (and I'd rather do portraits, but that, again, feels like a crutch). I thought I had enough context clues and sufficiently differentiated voices that it was fairly obvious who was talking, but I'll try to be more clear in the future. Thank you for your input.)

[~Neri]

(There hasn't been a problem for the past several updates, I'm talking about the very early ones [first four or so] that were a tad confusing, you're doing fine.)

[Armok]

> Is there any actual magical advantage to a human skeleton over animals? People are already way more squicked out and skeptical towards necromancy, without crossing that boundary. If we could just carve the shapes from animal bones and refuse to work with human remains that might be a bit more labor but it'd go a long way as a token of good will.

[Nirur Torir]

> Is there any actual magical advantage to a human skeleton over animals? People are already way more squicked out and skeptical towards necromancy, without crossing that boundary. If we could just carve the shapes from animal bones and refuse to work with human remains that might be a bit more labor but it'd go a long way as a token of good will.

There's not a really magical advantage, but it helps for the necromancer to be better at the tasks he's having his minions perform. It would be easier to have a human skeleton chop wood than a giant scorpion with human-like arms tacked on, and harder still to have a giant spider-like creation duel-wielding axes.

((Skills don't translate exactly, and you're better off raising the shadow skill, Minion Skill, than just mastering one task. It would be helpful to know some fencing, but a grandmaster swordsman/novice necromancer isn't going to be making skeletons that would be a serious threat to his peers without weight of numbers.))

[Armok]

I meant carving something that has the exact same joints and proportions as a human, but from animal bones.

Which reminds me; would powedering bone and mixing it with glue (made from hoves so still skeletony) and then baking/casting shapes from that be a good substitute for when we cant find bones the right shape and they are to large to carve out?

[IcyTea31]

Which reminds me; would powedering bone and mixing it with glue (made from hoves so still skeletony) and then baking/casting shapes from that be a good substitute for when we cant find bones the right shape and they are to large to carve out?

I doubt that would work, as it's established that the skeletons need at least something resembling joints to be amble to move.

[~Neri]

So list of Ideas!

Experiments:

I meant carving something that has the exact same joints and proportions as a human, but from animal bones.

Which reminds me; would powedering bone and mixing it with glue (made from hoves so still skeletony) and then baking/casting shapes from that be a good substitute for when we cant find bones the right shape and they are to large to carve out?

Hmm, maybe trying to add an aiming aid to the crossbow next?

A new idea: animate a bird skeleton, fill in the wings with cloth to let it fly again, and replace the beak with a needle/sharp nail that can be poisoned (and find a poisonous plant or shroom to do so with. Deadly poisons are actually really easy to find in nature, it's nonlethal or hard to detect ones that are difficult.).

Actions:

Thank her for the skeleton.

Animate said skeleton.

We're going to run out of food soon. Search for edibe plants we could gather/ start farming. If we have seeds use the skeleton to plough a field and spread seeds. Basically necrofarmer.

Meanwhile hunter lady goes hunting for beasts.

Lets do this also.

Also on top of that, we should try to get Tammy to like Necromantic Constructs.

Lets practice controlling multiple active minions at once.

[Nirur Torir]

   "You took a risk, but it paid off. Good work, I'll be able to set this skeleton to farming. We should be able to get the first harvest in before using up the nearby forage." Alex ignored Tammy's frown and moved to help Lyssa with her bag.

   "I was going to mention a garden, but I was afraid you'd make me deal with it. I hate weeding." Lyssa shuddered as she spoke.

   Tammy sighed. "Just be more careful next time."

   Alex began to arrange the bones on the ground. They looked old and brittle, but were clean. He nodded. "These will work fine. I'll need to rest for the remainder of the day, then I'll animate it in the morning. Tammy, I'm afraid I'll need to cancel your crossbow's enchantment for a while, until I'm better at maintaining it."

   A pained expression crossed her face at the words, before she quickly returned her face to a neutral expression. "Understood," she said flatly, before heading towards the timber pile.

   Alex shook his head and sat down to meditate.


   The animation went well enough, and the skeleton was quickly put to work preparing a field with their axe, or, when that was in use, the pick. It nearly made up for the more improvised tool by able to work without breaks. The trio spent most of that day foraging for fast-growing seeds, ending up with enough to plant a decent number of potatoes, peas, and turnips.

   In between his experiments, Alex helped get their first shack built. It was surprisingly well made, given their inexperience and poor material. They still needed more animal hides (or a better material) to keep it from leaking if it rained. For now, Tammy slept in it alone on clear nights. It was just large enough that they could all sleep semi-comfortably inside during rain, after plugging the leaks.


   "We really should have thought to bring tents," Lyssa complained, while they huddled together miserably outside the shack, using one of it's walls and an overhang to block most of the rain. "Can't you learn a spell to keep us dry?"

   "Not easily," he replied.


   There wasn't much time for experimenting or practice that week, but he did what he could. His carved bones seemed to work as well as untouched bones. His flailing attempts at making a glue-like substance to mix with powdered bone accomplished nothing. He would need to either buy some glue from the town at some point, or find someone who would sell him a recipe.

   His self-firing crossbow was significantly worse than what even he could do. He tried making it an auto-aiming turret, but it was slow at tracking its target and had a near-point-blank effective range. He had a few ideas about a cloth-covered bird skeleton to deliver poisons, but he didn't want to sacrifice his relatively-heavy clothing or one of their few bags, all of which were made of a burlap-like material. He wasn't even confident he could get it to fly yet.

   His limited practice controlling multiple minions went much better, and his meditations led him to being better able to absorb mana.

   He'd asked Tammy about her aversion to the undead, once she was in a better mood. "They're just creepy. I'll try not to let it affect me."

   By the end of the week, they'd finally gathered enough hides to render the shack relatively waterproof.

Spoiler: Map (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Alex (click to show/hide)

Health: 6/6
Mana: 0/10 [+2/night] [1 upkeep/day] (2 dormant)
Minions: 2/5

Temporary Modifiers:

Traits:
Feminine
Rainbow eyes and long rainbow hair
Talentless Carpenter

Magic Skills:Necromancy
  Bone 1: Initiate

• Command  May reliably control 5 undead
• Projection--  May sense minions "deaths." Vague proximity sense.
• Speed--

  Blood 0: Unknown

• Minion Upgrades
• Speed

  Shadow 0: Unknown

• Minion Skill
• Warding
• Speed

General

• Speed 0
• Capacity 10
• Recharge 2
• Mage Sight 0

Mundane Skills:
Architecture 0[1]
Military Logistics 0[1]
Mechanics 1
Farming 2
Clerk 2

Stats
Strength 6
Dexterity 4
Constitution 6
Intelligence 8
Wisdom 7
Charisma 8
Karma 5

Spoiler: Spells (click to show/hide)

Bone

Animate Skeleton 1 - Animate an already prepared skeleton, under your command. They will obey commands literally, to the best of their ability. They are roughly as powerful as a typical farmer.
Loosely limited to human-sized skeletons.
Costs 2 mana.
Casting time of 30 minutes.
Upkeep of 1 mana/skeleton/day.

Call Spirit 1 - Summon a deceased person's soul. Targeting requires a person, place, or object of great sentimental value. This will fail if the soul has been claimed by a deity, and alert said deity. The spirit can only interact with the mundane world through dreams. Summoned spirit is not bound.
Casting time of 30 minutes.
Costs 1 mana.

Necromantic Mechanism 1 - Create a mechanism with a control matrix. This will generally be a sensor (motion or pressure) linked to a trigger, although more creative applications are possible. One "mechanism" may have as many as five sensors and five effects.
Costs 1-2 mana.
Casting time varies
Upkeep of 1 mana/set/day

Spoiler: Inventory (click to show/hide)

9 days hardtack

0 Iron, 6 Copper coins (1 iron is 10 copper. A cheap inn room and six meals costs five copper.)

Turnip, potato, and pea seeds.

20ft rope
Good Knife
Small Backpack
2x Small Saddlebags

Basic construction tools
Bag of nails

Spoiler: Minions (click to show/hide)

Lyssa
   Healthy
   Extremely Loyal
   ****Trapper [Good Kit]
   ***Tracker

Tammy
   Healthy
   Extremely Loyal
   ****Crossbows [Good Self-Cranking Crossbow, 20 bolts] (Dormant)
   ***Negotiation

Undead Copy Machine (Dormant)
   May copy a page in 8 hours
   Debatable creates evil books

Skeleton Farmer

Spoiler: Settlement (click to show/hide)

Prepared fields to feed one person for a year

1x simple shack

((Woo, {98} on your practice roll. It triggered a second roll, for skilling-up bone early. You got an {8} on that.
You may try to specifically train on any aspect, including shadow/blood magic or a specific sub-skill.

You haven't rolled low enough on forage/hunting rolls to merit actually eating any hardtack. That will change as winter starts to approach. You have about two months, which should give your skeleton enough time to get in enough quick crops for three people to survive the winter.))

[~Neri]

Meditate for mana, train minion skill, train for a higher minion cap, train for a higher mana regen, train for a higher mana cap.

Try to reanimate a fully intact corpse of a small animal.

Try to make a human sized humanoid skeleton out of carved animal bones.

Try to make a miniature humanoid skeleton out of carved animal bones.

Attempt to reanimate them.

Work on control matrices.

Keep expanding the farm.

See if a pile of reanimated bone dust would be able to move around.

Say hai to Godcat. Fondly recall the entire Homestuck webcomic and that shocking ending.

Build relationships with friends.

Do character building random useless fluff.

Attempt to make a bike out of random detritus and wood. Fail miserably at building it.

Be the Pony. Eat some grass.

Waste time doing inane nonsense.

Make a ring out of grass.

Make daisy chains. Lots and lots of daisy chains.

See if Godcat will grant us a cat.

Cat, be a dimensionally displaced cranky and cynical British person.

Cat, be able to talk.

Cat, complain about everything. Loudly.

Alex, think cat is adorable.

Cat, have an eccentric name.

Alex, call him Ms. Fluffykins.

Cat, be male.

Kevak, stop writing every inane idea that comes to your mind.

[Chink]

*snip*

+1

[Armok]

> Maybe we could use leaves for a proof of concept flight, even if they're not durable enough to use long?

> Tammy has a *point* about undead being creepy. PR is our biggest weakness, we should work of making them look less creepy! Maybe paint them in bright colors and carving their grimmest features to look more cartoonish?